Clays among Lincoln’s biggest vote-getters

LINCOLN, Maine — Samuel Clay and his sister Katie will join their older brother Steve as leaders on two of the town’s most influential boards.

Samuel Clay rejoins the Town Council as a replacement for the retiring Rod Carr with 1,507 votes in Tuesday’s election. He finished second to incumbent Councilor David Whalen, who received 1,559, according to certified vote totals provided by Town Clerk Shelly Crosby.

Challenger Matthew D. Berry received 1,036 votes. Katie Clay, meanwhile, received 1,328 votes as she secured a seat on the RSU 67 Board of Directors — the most in that election. Whalen and the Clays were elected to three-year seats.

Steve Clay is 39 and the council’s chairman. He was not up for re-election Tuesday. The younger Clays join their father Hervey, the town’s deputy fire chief, among the town’s leaders.

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The election is the 36-year-old Katie Clay’s first venture into Lincoln public service, said Samuel Clay, who is 29, though she has served as president of the Maine chapter of the Funeral Directors Association. The Clay family runs a funeral home off Route 6 and are Republicans, Clay said.

“I think she will open the lines of communication a lot better. She is informed and not afraid to speak her mind and all that. She will be good,” Samuel Clay said Wednesday of his sister. “She will listen to people and take time and talk to people and bring up their concerns.”